China's Week, June 29

Fusion in a suitcase? The fastest, most efficient IC ever. A billion 5G connections. Silicon photonic chip. The shou-fang cycle. Artillery-launched drones. 'Don't let your kids study abroad'.

Science & Technology

A satellite transmitted data 5x faster than Starlink from 36,000 km–60x higher than Starlink–using a 2W laser (as strong as a nightlight) by combining Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) to sharpen and stabilize the laser signal.

NPU flew its hypersonic Feitian 2 with a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine using a kerosene-hydrogen peroxide propellant, reducing the vehicle’s weight and boosting payload.

The first controlled nuclear fusion in a device the size of a small suitcase uses just 10W DC to produce 1MV nanosecond pulses. Big for science, industry, defense.

A suitcase-sized, 2 kW fibre laser works from -50ºC to +50ºC without heating or cooling. Disables drones 1 km away. Competitors are conainer-size.

Huawei has built a full AI stack, a feat no other company, including Nvidia and TSMC, has achieved and which Nvidia’s Jensen Huang publicly acknowledged.

Peking U built the first two-dimensional, low-power GAAFET transistor, a "wafer-scale multi-layer-stacked single-crystalline 2D GAA configuration, it is the fastest, most efficient transistor ever".

Fudan’s silicon photonic integrated, 38 Tbps multiplexer chip sends instructions via light, not electricity, transfers 4.75T LLM parameters/sec.

China’s 741,700 robotics-related companies installed 55% of the world’s industrial robots last year – 7x the US rate. Unitree claims to have 60% global market share in quadruped robots and leads the world leader in sophisticated humanoids.

Economy & Trade

The US pursues capital-intensive technological supremacy while China relies on market warfare. This is critical for navigating their rivalry.

By 2027, the gold industry must balance industrial growth with national security, capitalize on China's strengths in gold smelting, processing and operational management. China mined 377 tonnes and consumed 985 tonnes of gold in 2024.

China’s 1 billion 5G connections spur a digital transformation that will contribute $2 trillion to the economy by 2030, 8.3% of GDP, when 5G penetration will be 124%.

The E-commerce sector has grown 8.5% from January to May 2025.

Tesla beat CATL and BYD to build a $556M grid-scale battery storage station, the

largest grid-side energy storage project in China.

Shanghai will be the international operations center for the digital RMB, the central bank’s digital currency, CBDC, and expanded international trade finance.

Shanghai hosted 896 exhibitions last year across 20 million sq m.. Mega-exhibitions over 100,000 sq. m. reached a record high. 42 are UFI-certified, top among global cities.

Society & Environment

“Everyone was talking about the same thing: don’t let your kids study abroad”.

More young people no longer believe in love within marriage. They’re more willing to believe that parental guidance and matchmaker's skills make for a better marriage.

An American family spending $4,000 pa on medication would pay $300 for identical drugs in China, $481 billion in GDP inflation through legalized extortion of US households.

93 GW of solar panels installed in May, more than any country in 2024, more than 1GW/day, or 230 million solar panels and 5300 wind turbines, or 100 solar panels/sec. and a wind turbine every 10 minutes, making 198 GW YTD.

Governance & Geopolitics

PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng: “China's vision is a global financial system that relies on several major currencies, not just the dollar”. NYT.

Who will provide the global financial infrastructure now that trade is increasingly conducted in programmable currencies? China, that’s who.

“When multinationals see our industries, components, and production chains they can't bear to leave. Returning to America however, they tell Congress that China must be contained”.

Of the New Development Triangle’s three sides – state capacity, institutional system, and socio-economic/industrial policies – many countries lack one (or even all) and few sustained 4% GDP/capita growth from 1975 to 2025.

“Scholars call the oscillation of tightening and loosening in China’s governance the shou-fang cycle, but the concept has not been scrutinized. This study critically examines the concept of the shou-fang cycle and discusses its utility in the study of Chinese politics”.

Peroz III, son of the last Sassanid king Yazdegerd III, fled to the Tang Dynasty after his Empire fell to the Arabs in the 7th century and his descendants lived in exile under Chinese protection. This moment, recorded in both Chinese and Persian history, symbolizes a civilizational connection.

China in the Middle East War

Iran emerged bloodied yet unbroken, Beijing took notes, and their 25-Year Strategic Partnership shifted from memorandum to muscle. HQ-16s, above, have begun replacing antiquated SAM belts; HQ-22/FK-3 batteries sit in bonded warehouses, ready to knit a layered dome over uranium hubs and missile assembly corridors once the paperwork is stamped ‘civilian air-safety upgrade’; BeiDou receivers slide into Zolfaghar and Dezful guidance loops, trimming Circular Error Probability from fifty meters to fifteen; CETC spoofers and Huawei/iFlytek edge boards patch every hole Israel just mapped, rerouting data through a Mandarin-speaking kill chain that Western SIGINT can’t parse in real time.

Defense

Two PLAN 815A Electronic Surveillance ships are in the Persian Gulf guiding planes and missiles while conducting electromagnetic suppression and intelligence analysis. Great experience for the crews.

The B-2 bomber raid over Iran this week reminded everyone that America cannot build a single guided missile without permission from Beijing. And that’s not hyperbole.

Israel’s lack of strategic depth and limited human resources mean that it cannot prolong confrontations with Arab states with a billion people. Yet it has chosen to use military force—a fundamentally unrealistic and unsustainable approach—to eliminate them as perceived ‘threats’.

Artillery-launched drones survive being fired like a six-inch cannon shell, travel six miles in two seconds, multiply drones’ flight range, save significant power and extend loiter time”.